HotOperator and Laux recently started working with Country House Restaurants in Clarendon Hills and Geneva Illinois. Dean Timson, one of the partners in the restaurants came to us for advice on what Country House Restaurants could do to sell more drinks. At the moment, their business tends to drop off rapidly after the dinner hour. Dean told me that the food to drink ratio was nearing 80/20, and he would prefer to reach closer to 60/40. 

Because HotOperator has started working with Jessie Ott with f n b Innovation, we decided to ask Jessie what she might recommend. She is a renowned expert in the wine and spirit industry, so who better, right? I had expected a couple of comments in an email, but what I got back was way more than I had imagined. Not that I’m surprised, Jessie is intelligent, energetic and extremely knowledgeable when it comes to the wine and spirit industry.

Jessie Ott’s Recommendations on How Country House can Sell More Drinks

Direct from Jessie’s email to me: 

“If you are a restaurant operator like Country House and you want to increase your beverage percentages, follow these crucial steps.”

Have a Great Drink Menu (you can why see I’m already in love with her advice, since we make a lot of menus)

1.) Make sure you have a well designed drink menu printed out and on the tables and easy reach at the bar. And make sure it’s separate. It’s important to have a list ready and available to encourage your customer to go on the journey you want them to experience. Not everyone walks into a restaurant and knows exactly what they want. Guide them to try what’s new as part of your participation in making them happy. It will elevate their experience and help you sell more profitable items.

Say No to QR Codes

2.) If you are using a QR Code, it’s not enough. Offering a QR code just encourages more heads in phones and fewer people engaging with your servers and bartenders. This is not the experience you want for your guests. Plus if they are older, like myself, they can’t read what’s on their little screen. It’s been proven that when you have drink menus or specials on the table you can increase your beverage sales by up to 12%.

Make the Offering Fit the Crowd

3.) If you are a high volume concept, consider a limited cocktail and BTG (by the glass) menu. The key is volume, and getting drinks in front of your guests as quickly as possible. You want your staff to get drinks served quickly instead of your guests reading and waiting. Spending too much time mixing cocktails with too many ingredients, or making them look too fancy will not allow this to happen either. It will take customers longer to order and frustration could set in. Plus, getting drinks in front of consumers quickly can help you get a 2nd or 3rd round order which increases your check average and beverage sales.

Mix and Match with Food

4.) Offer food and beverage pairings to simplify things for your customers. If you can give them a proven experience combining both food and drinks, the experience is elevated and customers will take less time than trying to decide on their own.

Short and Sweet

 5.) Offer short, simple descriptions next to your beverage options. That way it’s not dependent on your waitstaff to relay the same message to every table. It will increase customer satisfaction and streamline your process for both your staff and the consumer. For example, a Chardonnay lists out best this way: Dry, Crisp and no Oak Aging.

Features and Specials Win

6.) Offer something special for your guests either throughout the week or a specific night of the week. This can be in the form of a daily or weekly happy hour, or discounts on beverages such as half priced wine nights. And to draw in crowds during sports seasons, offer beer and snack specials on big sports nights. Cater to your audience and encourage people to come in on your slow nights by offering deals no one can refuse, especially on a big game night.

Ready to Drink

7.) Have alternative beverages available and let guests know you have them! RTD’s (ready to drink) and no and low alcohol options are here to stay. More and more restaurants are offering these alternatives, and while some are not yet onboard, use that as a selling point to bring consumers into your restaurant. It will encourage more people to visit and create a loyal consumer base for years to come. As a bonus, they spend more per outing which increases your check average and beverage sales. Spending money on a non alcoholic beverage costs more than water, soda or juice, and elevates your customer’s experience. You MUST be sure your customers know these offerings are available via your menus and social media.

We took her advice, so should you

In working with Country House Restaurants, we used many of Jessie’s ideas along with some late night Happy Hours and free Jukebox to get people in later and to stay longer. If you’re looking for a great drink menu, or social media and marketing ideas on how to increase your drink business, reach out to HotOperator here, or Jessie Ott here.

Mark@hotoperator.com

jessieo@fnbinnovation.com

The post Recent Advice: How Country House Restaurants can Sell More Drinks appeared first on Laux.

With restaurant menu price inflation hitting a 39-year high this past fall, it may be time to take a look at offsetting your food and labor costs. Even if you just took a price increase this past November or December, it still may be time to take another bump.

The food-away-from-home index rose 0.6% his past November, and 5.8% over the same period a year ago, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. By the way, that was the highest annual rate of increase for that index since 1982.

Here are 7 tips to help offset rising costs without losing any customers.

1 – Figure out your theoretical food costs.

Before you do anything with your prices, check the price on the menu against the actual cost of goods. Simply take the price per ounce and multiply it by your portion size in ounces. Add in other plate costs and simply divide the selling price with the food cost to get to the food cost percentage.

Before you take a price increase, however, make sure the food contribution (margin) is still strong enough to support the product on the menu. Just because the price increased on beef, as an example, that doesn’t necessarily mean the product is no longer profitable. So be careful with percentages, and always make your decision on how much actual money you make, and not the overall percentages.

2 – Use mental anchoring on your menu to bring in price comparisons.

The most expensive item on a menu is always the hardest item to sell. Which just means you need something more expensive on the menu to make the higher priced items look less expensive by comparison. Remember, the one time in a person’s life they are most likely to buy the most expensive item on a menu is the day they sign on their house (and housing sales are at their peak right now). The thinking is: “I’m $300,000.00 in debt, what’s another $100.00?”

When we redesign a menu, we always add a higher priced combination to offset the price points of the higher priced items with some other item you already have on the menu. So if you have a shrimp scampi on the menu, use that together with the steak for a steak and shrimp item that can be a higher price than the steak.

3 – Place expensive seafood and beef items together in one location on your menu

Then, feature them with highlights to call attention to them. When consumers go into a restaurant, they want to know what you recommend. Because steak and seafood are valuable, people expect to pay more for those items. So, all you need to do is recommend them to give them a boost and sell more of them. And when you do, you will take more money to the bank.

4 – Use a beef temperature ordering guide on your menu.

Consumers believe, and rightly so, that you take beef products seriously when you have a guide to ordering beef by temperature. When you use this chart, you are telling your guests that you know how to cook steak, and they will like the steak more when it’s cooked to their perfect doneness.

5 – Use table talkers to sell your star products.

People respond to photos, but only if the photo looks good enough to eat. So don’t go cheap on photography, but instead, make sure your photos look really terrific. Place the food plated up, and use natural light with a smartphone to get a nice shot. Even upscale restaurants can take advantage of a well designed table tent.

6 – Offer a bonus to your servers.

Restaurant servers are coin operated. They focus on the products that bring the easiest money for them, or that offer an incentive of some kind. And keep in mind, steaks and seafood products often bring an additional $8 or $9 dollars to your plate contribution. So, there is enough money there to share with your servers. When you give them a buck for every steak they sell, they will put their focus on those items, and make a lot more money for your restaurant in the process.

7 – Make sure your menu is design-engineered.

This is essential. A great menu can bring up to 12% to your bottom line. Plus, your menu never takes a day off, never gets sick, or insults a guest. Think about it, if you take in a million dollars in sales with the menu you have, a well engineered menu could bring in an extra $120,000.00 this year alone. Worse, if your menu is not well engineered, you’re losing that much every year you’re in business.

For a business consultation, give Mark Laux a call at 800-316-3198, or contact him through his website here.

The post Here are 7 tips to help offset rising costs without losing any customers. appeared first on Laux.

Social media, like any advertising program works well based on three factors.

“I love your creativity and enjoy your expertise around the restaurant industry. I will be 100% honest, I am very doubtful of Facebook for our specific setting and location only because we have gone with many different companies going back many years ago and results were BLAH. I would LOVE to be shown that I am totally wrong about this.”

My answer contained these three factors. 

What You Say and How You Say What You Say Impacts Results

Mark ‘Z’ is Rich, Here’s Why

Like Everything in Food, Consistency is Key

The post The Three Factors That Make Social Media Work appeared first on Laux.

How Patricia Decides What’s For Dinner (and where to get it)

This is a story about how Patricia decides what’s for dinner and where to get it. It’s a story about a busy life filled with hundreds of other decisions that include friends, maybe some children, her husband or partner, pets, running a household, and working or doing volunteer work. All of this chaos influences her decision about dinner, and the final decision probably isn’t made until late in the day.

6:30 AM Patricia’s first thoughts about food.

Patricia is in her thirties or forties, married with a couple of kids, a dog or a cat, she works and takes care of a modest home. The alarm on her phone goes off at 6:30 in the morning, so she reaches over to her nightstand, picks up her phone and shuts off the alarm. Maybe it’s a Tuesday, or Thursday, at the moment, she can’t remember. But her day is just beginning and she has already had her phone in her hand.

In fact, like many people, she opens her Facebook app on her phone and scrolls to see what’s happening in her extended world before she gets out of bed. She glimpses at her friends and their lives and feels a little jealousy at what looks to her like the perfect life. Along with her friends and extended family, he sees local businesses, and even a little news. Then she switches over to InstaGram and looks at all the photos people have posted. Some of the posts on both sights are from people she knows, others are simply people she follows for various reasons. She also sees some of the local restaurant posts. The restaurants with the nice food photos catch her eye, but she’s not hungry at the moment, so she scrolls on without engaging.

Secretly, she compares her post engagement to other people. I know it sounds silly, but she wants to be popular, even at her age. So when she sees a friend or her sister with more likes and comments than her, she feels even more jealous. As she is thinking about how her posts are being received, she sees more photos of food. The best photos and comments are remembered positively, the poor quality photos are quickly forgotten.

7:15 AM Ready to wake the house and have her first cup of coffee.

After showering and getting dressed, (and not until she has had her first cup of coffee) she starts to wake the rest of the family. Her husband is awake already and looking at his phone, scrolling through the news, and social media. He has not gotten out of bed yet, but he is working toward it. He, too, notices the nice food photos, and his appetite in the morning is stronger than Patricia’s, so his stomach grumbles. He may not engage the posts that stir his appetite, but the photos have made an impression on him. The photos make an impression, either way, good or bad, depending on the image quality and the post text.

11:15 AM Thinking about lunch with her kids.

Because of COVID, Patricia is working from home, and her kids are on a rotating schedule at school, with some days studying at home and other days in class. This has made it difficult for Patricia to stay organized, but she wants her kids to be safe above all else, so she does everything she can to accommodate. Most breakfast and lunches are at home, but Patricia gets tired of cooking and wants a break now and again. She doesn’t feel completely safe taking the kids to a restaurant, so the only food away from home is coming from the deli at the grocery store, or a place with a drive thru window, and the local pizza place every once in a while. From time to time she orders something for delivery or carryout locally, but that has been hit or miss for food quality, and she hates to waste money on food that is much better at the restaurant.

One of the things she misses most about her life is meeting up with friends and family at a local restaurant. She dreams about having a couple of glasses of wine, maybe some appetizers and a meal, but it’s the connections that she is missing most. Just sitting in a restaurant with people not in her family and having a break from life.

3:15 PM Patricia peeks at social media.

During her normal day, about every couple of hours, Patricia will log on to Facebook, or Twitter, or InstaGram, or SnapChat, or TikTok and check in. She scrolls through her newsfeed and glances at what everyone is up to. She notices some of the food shots from local restaurants. She even likes a couple of the nicer photos, or the more engaging content. She may even comment, but more important, the food photos have made an impression on her. The best times to catch her are just before lunch, about mid afternoon, late in the afternoon when she is winding down, and then after dinner while she is watching TV and scrolling social media.

Late in the afternoon she starts to think about dinner. If she were well organized, she may have already taken something out of the freezer and is preparing it for the oven, or stove. Maybe she already has something in the slow cooker, but most days are decided after four in the afternoon. She texts her husband and asks what he might want. The answer is frustrating to her: “I dunno, what do you want?” At this moment, she is not consciously remembering the photos from restaurants she saw throughout the day. Those food shots are nothing but a vague memory in the back of her mind. But those restaurants are more top of mind than the restaurants who have not posted in a while.

4:30 PM Patricia starts to decide what’s for dinner (this time for real).

Maybe she decides to have pizza. The kids like it, and it’s filling and easy. It also travels well. Where she orders it from has a lot to do with the social media she has consumed during the day. If there was a nice photo of pizza, she’ll remember it. Or maybe it’s meatloaf from a local place that has that nice provolone cheese and mushrooms in the middle. Or maybe a nice burger with fries would hit the spot. Again, none of these items are going to be purchased from a restaurant that hasn’t been active in her newsfeed in a long while. She simply isn’t carrying them top of mind. Unless she hears from you, she isn’t thinking about you. It is that simple.

Are you thinking like Patricia, or are you thinking like a food company?

Most food companies do not take social media seriously enough. That’s because they don’t see an immediate return on investment. People like Patricia simply don’t tell the restaurant they saw them on Facebook or InstaGram, so food companies don’t always understand the impact of those platforms to influence Patricia’s behavior. Most food companies see their social media through their own eyes, not through the eyes of people like Patricia or her husband. For this reason, the idea of using a professional social media resource seems expensive and disconnected from their business. They think: if only a marketing firm could offer an exact return on investment they might sign up. Tell them, if you spend this, you will get that, down to the first order from Patricia or someone like her.

Except social media, like all advertising, is an influencer. It’s not a gun to Patricia’s head forcing her to buy now or else. It’s a gentle nudge, or a whisper in her ear. It’s a relationship built over time. Social media is about building trust and positive thoughts. When Patricia sees your posts over time, she becomes familiar with your brand and what you offer. When she orders from you and tells you the French fries were soggy and you answer her properly, she forgives you and gives you another try. If you have corrected your fries before her next order, she may even give you a positive review. Patricia’s average number of friends on Facebook is 338 people (brandwatch.com), all of whom may like Patricia and listen to her suggestions. If someone asks where she gets pizza, she may even think to mention your business.

Social media works, but it’s not a cash machine.

Most smart food businesses are posting two or three times per day. They post on a regular basis, and they repeat their posts. Many food companies worry that if they repeat their posts, people will get tired of seeing them and stop following them. But this is not true at all. Again, you have to see social media through the eyes of Patricia. She isn’t looking at your page and scrolling through everything you post. She is looking for her friends, or family, or the latest fashion trend. 

Smart business operators are also using professional help for a couple of reasons. First, professionals will post on a regular basis and not skip any posts because they are paid to be consistent. Secondly, a good marketing firm will be better able to get inside Patricia’s head and make your posts stick. They will get Patricia to think better of you and your products. If they are really good, they will come to you with ideas on your food, what people are saying and how to improve your business.

Open your mind and think like Patricia.

Most food service companies have not thought about Patricia or people like her in any meaningful way. They see the world through their own, narrow view of the world. To reach people like Patricia and get them to buy from you rather than someone else, you will need to open your mind and think differently. Taking social media for granted, or worse, plugging away at it on your own and thinking it isn’t worth a lot of effort is essentially telling people like Patricia that they don’t matter.

Here’s the takeaway: reach out to people like Patricia in a professional manner and grow your brand awareness and your sales. Invest money with skilled professionals who understand how to get into your potential customer’s heads and lives. It’s time to see the world the way Patricia sees it.

Ask for help here!

Contact our sister company HotOperator.com here.

The post How Patricia Decides What’s For Dinner (and where to get it) appeared first on Laux.

7 Ways To Save Your Restaurant Business

The COVID crisis has been extremely difficult for many independent and chain restaurants. As a marketing company specializing in food service, Laux and HotOperator have worked with countless restaurant operators to help them recover their sales and profits. Here is an article that may help you save your restaurant.

Fall job growth in the restaurant industry remained diminished. Eating and drinking establishments added a net 200,300 jobs in September 2020 on a seasonally-adjusted basis, according to preliminary data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

September’s growth came on the heels of a downward-revised increase of just 104,300 jobs in August. Taken together, the employment gains in August and September were a small fraction of the 3.5 million jobs added during the first three months coming out of the coronavirus lockdowns. As a result, bar and restaurant staffing are still down 2.3 million jobs from February’s peak.

How Coronavirus is Impacting Your Restaurant Business

As a result of consumer changes around the coronavirus, the restaurant industry has been hit hard with restaurant and foodservice sales losses surpassing $185 billion between March and August. Without the expansion of off-premises business in restaurants across all segments, the impact would have been much worse.

To boost off-premises business, some restaurant operators added curbside takeout, added by about 67% of operators since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in March. That’s according to a survey of 3,500 restaurant operators conducted by the National Restaurant Association from August 26 – September 1.

Third Party Restaurant Delivery Is Up, But is it Profitable for Your Restaurant Business?

Twenty-seven percent of operators say they added third-party delivery, while 17% added in-house delivery. Among the restaurant operators that added any of these off-premises options, a majority say they plan to continue offering it after COVID-19 passes. This points to changes in both consumer behavior and how restaurants work.

The $26.8 billion online ordering market is turning out to be the fastest-growing source of restaurant sales in the United States, according to The NPD group. Digital orders, while still accounting for just 5% of all restaurant orders, are growing some 20% each year. Restaurant visits, meanwhile, are remaining mostly flat or declining. Expect the numbers for online and call-in orders to continue to grow.

Here are 8 Marketing Ideas for Your Restaurant Business

Turn Your Kitchen Inside Out
This is a long term idea but worth considering. We generally think of a restaurant as a kitchen attached to a dining room. But imagine it differently. Imagine a kitchen that supports dining experiences through carryout and delivery stations. Rather than just putting your dining room tables and chairs in storage, rethink the layout and add new approaches to your restaurant business.

Pop-Up Brands
In the short term, don’t cling to what you have sold in the past. Instead, start thinking about what you could sell. If you have a steak joint, you can make a pop-up brand that sells wings, sandwiches, or even ethnic foods. At this moment, it’s not at all about what your restaurant brand represented, it’s what your kitchen can support.

All you need is a name, logo, a little merchandise, a menu, a couple of social media pages and a website. Just make sure the new pop-up brand offers products that travel well, and that you can make the food items without any equipment investments.

Virtual Brand
Rethink your brand to be more virtual. This is actually easier than you think. Simply set up a carryout menu to only offer the products that travel well. Then market on social media and your website with exclusive products for carryout, curbside and delivery only. Make sure you test everything you want to sell for carryout and delivery. That means taking it home with you and eating after it has been sitting for half an hour.

If you get your food home and it sucks, your customers will probably agree with you.

Turn Your Restaurant Inside Out
When I first moved into my current home there was a motel down the street. It consisted of a drive up residence and a string of 12 little buildings. In Holbrook Arizona there was a hotel with a cluster of little Wigwams. Fast forward to Chicago, summer of 2020 and there is The Darling Rose Garden that features a similar approach to privacy, 10 greenhouses you can dine in. Maybe this isn’t practical for everyone, but it’s a very cute idea. Imagine a restaurant not as a big, open concept, but instead, something broken up, protected and private.

To make this work, you will need to rethink what it means to go out to eat. That and have a higher value offering so you can charge a little more. Or, make a drive thru and compete with McDonald’s and Taco Bell.

Ghost Kitchen
If you’re thinking about opening up a new restaurant concept, open a ghost kitchen. Consumers, even in smaller cities, are changing their dining habits. They are eating out less often, but they still want a break from home cooking. Plus, if your kitchen needs volume, lease space, staff and equipment to other brands. Or work with a marketing company and develop a new brand. Build a Facebook page, a small website, a logo and some merchandise. Then work out a carryout and delivery menu and start selling.

Ghost Kitchen sounds good, but you need a brand? Hmmm, where can you find a really good marketing company that specializes in restaurant brand development? 

Home Meal Replacement
Some of our most successful clients are offering home meal replacements. These are package dinners that include the main entree, sides, salads, desserts and drinks all for one price. And all of this is for delivery, carryout, or curbside pickup.

But you need a menu and promotions to make this work. Home Meal Replacement will not create itself. It takes skill. It takes creativity. It takes a marketing company that specializes in the restaurant business.

Groceries
Seems like centuries ago, but as recently as April and May, restaurant operators were offering groceries as a way to make extra cash. If you go this route, think about groceries to make meals. If you are going to sell eggs, sell omelets with all the ingredients and the recipes instead. Consumers don’t meal plan groceries at a restaurant. So you will need to do that work for them.

The Mark & Kelly Show
Mark and Kelly Laux are a creative team. They have been working together long enough to be able to answer each other’s sentences. They have experience with every aspect of the foodservice industry. From food manufacturing to distribution to restaurants to consumers, their experience and creativity will help you grow your business. Put simply: if you sell food on planet Earth, they can help. Reach out here. Or through HotOperator here.

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